Bestowal
by MagicConan14
Summary: After investigating a 'cursed' clock shop, Shinichi is pulled into the world of magic...
1. The Cursed Clock Shop

Bestowal

_Disintegrate_ was meant to be the story that started it all, but due to Akako not being too well-known, it got deleted...meaning this fic's the new beginning for the series Eternity Nightmare.

Disclaimer: Detective Conan/Case Closed wouldn't be a mystery series if it really was mine.

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Shinichi never knew he was special. All right, he probably did know he was special, but not in this way.

He could give people magic powers.

How did he know this? He'd given one to himself.

/

The strange clock shop near Teitan High had been cursing every customer as soon as they walked in, that's what the rumours said. Obviously, Shinichi, being naturally curious, went into the shop…and found himself a mystery of the weird kind.

The clocks all emanated an unusual vibe – it was playing with his mind and making his head throb.

"Excuse me, could you come with me?" a neatly dressed, bespectacled lady asked him.

Shinichi followed her into an office room filled to the ceiling with clocks, all giving off that same vibe. Instead of clocks on the wall behind the desk, there was a red curtain. The teen detective grabbed his head with his hands as he slid into an offered chair.

Then he saw them, poking out behind the curtain: a group of tubes all filled with human bodies – the colour missing from them - and an orange liquid. The one person he clearly spotted was enough to make him go berserk, though…

"Ran!" he screamed, forgetting his headache for a moment and sprinting forward. The lady stepped to the side, blocking his way and clicking her tongue.

"If you want her, then you'll have to get past my marvellous timepieces first!" The clocks chimed five as if in response, a raucous noise to Shinichi's ears as his head throbbed again. Beads of sweat began to form on his forehead and slowly trickled their way down as the clocks' rings made his headache worse…

"Let me bring out my secret weapon," the lady continued, grabbing a black gramophone-like object off a nearby shelf and turning the handle on its side. The colour began to get sucked from the detective and everything around him! _This is weird…_he thought. The handle creaked as the lady turned it the other way, and a colour version of Shinichi rushed out._Even weirder,_ he added. "Goodbye, gift-giver!" she called out, placing the handled item back on the shelf. She stood back, observing as the Shinichi doppelganger pulled out a box of soccer balls from behind the curtain and kicked one at the original.

Attempting to steal a ball from underneath his lookalike's nose was futile, so there was absolutely no other option. Then, something flitted in and piqued his interest.

A sky blue butterfly which, upon landing, morphed into a strawberry blonde teen.

Nothing could be more flabbergasting than that for Shinichi – except for the glow that surrounded him. _It feels like my back's being stretched and pulled,_ he noted while gritting his teeth.

/

After dispelling the glow, the new arrival, who had sought out the glasses lady, whispered to Shinichi, "You take out the duplicate; I'll take out the Clockmaker."

The doppelganger was still in a state of shock from everything happening too fast, so he snatched a ball out of the box and slammed it into his lookalike's face. He only partially faded away, and only some of the colour returned to the real Shinichi.

A soft and fluffy object brushed across his back, and he (the real Shinichi) looked back to find what astonished the duplicate – he had wings. The big, snow white variety. The doppelganger snapped himself out of his daze with a head shake and began shooting balls again. Shinichi retaliated with powerful flaps of his wings.

Suddenly spotting Ran in the tube again, he got so riled up that he held out his palm and a blast of air streamed out. Directing the attack towards the duplicate, it finally disappeared and Shinichi was back to normal.

/

Meanwhile, Haibara was dealing with the Clockmaker with the only way she knew how – with ice magic. She shot beams of ice at her adversary, and then melted her with a desert wind. As the Clockmaker thudded to the ground, she rushed over to the detective.

/

"Well, I'd never think you were a gift-giver!" Haibara scoffed with a smile. Shinichi stared at her with a weird expression – he had no idea who she was. "Oh, right…you haven't met me in this life. I'm Haibara Ai."

"W-What are you?"

"An ice elemental. Gift-givers like you, who give powers to deserving humans, work alongside elementals like me to protect nature; however, Tokyo doesn't really require our help." She chuckled at that comment, and the detective had a confused expression because it sounded so unusual. "We also have to fight evil if we come across it, which at least keeps us active here." Then she transformed back into a butterfly and flew off. Shinichi was left to break the glass tubes with gusts from his new wings. When he finished with the wings, they disappeared. When Ran left the orange substance, it was like she was never in it…

Obviously, the duplicates the Clockmaker had proudly shown off were used to spread the rumours that started this, but the question now was: what was the Clockmaker's real intention for keeping the people afterwards, and why did she decide to store them in that liquid? What was that liquid anyway?

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Note that Haibara is 17 in this fic.

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	2. A Life He Never Had

Shinichi had decided to forget what happened in the clockmaker's shop, but time and fate wouldn't let him...

/

A butterfly the colour of a lapis lazuli fluttered in through the window of Shinichi's bedroom and landed next to his bed, morphing into Sera as she did so.

After dragging the detective out of bed, she pleaded to him, "Kudo-kun, you've got to help us. The Field of Luminescence is going to disappear soon!" Shinichi stared at the tomboy cluelessly. After she thought for a second, she shook her head. "I forgot you wouldn't understand me. You're probably wondering how I know you. Well, I'll let time speak for itself..."

With that, she transported the two of them to a place where alternate dimensions and time could be viewed clearly – it looked kind of like a movie theatre, except there were no other people and there was no equipment. (Sera was the equipment, thanks to her magic.)

She did a gesture akin to pushing the screen, albeit not actually touching the screen. An image began to form…

-On screen-

Shinichi had to be on the alert. If that man in black spotted him, he'd be dead meat!

But he'd never anticipated the other man in black…Gin.

-End-

Shinichi stared, dumbstruck, as onscreen Gin fed him the APTX and his transformation occurred. _No way could this have happened._

Sera interrupted his thoughts by telling him, "Remember, this is the event that sent you to me, eventually. But before that," she snapped her fingers and a new scene filled the screen, "you met her." Malice could easily be detected in that last word of hers.

As soon as she stopped speaking, the still image brought itself to life.

-On screen-

Shiho had been left in a sealed room, with only a garbage chute for company…if garbage chutes could do that. Her expression was serious, yet she had an air of someone who had suffered.

With her free hand, she pulled out a pill.

Let the pain begin.

-End-

Another click of Sera's fingers made the scene skip to the scene where Haibara was introduced at Teitan Elementary, and then the scene changed yet again. This time, it was outside a public toilet, and both shrunk Shinichi and Sera were there.

"Masumi Sera. I'm a detective, just like you, little boy," the Sera on the screen told Shinichi – not only the one in the 'movie', but the one who was watching the 'movie' too.

"Hopefully that clears things up, gift giver detective," the Sera in reality concluded. The screen automatically turned off, and Sera brought Shinichi back to his room. "I could explain more about the Field, but I think there's someone else who would like to do the honours."

As she morphed back into the butterfly, Shinichi was lost in thought. Why did Sera show him events from a life he'd never had?

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